DFES firefighters: your agreement and award, explained clause by clause.

WES335 "shall be read in conjunction with" the award, and "will prevail to the extent of any inconsistencies" (cl 6(1)). The IR Act says the same thing as a general rule: an industrial agreement prevails over an award to the extent of any inconsistency, unless the agreement says otherwise (s 41(9)).

The Fire and Emergency Services Act 1998 (WA) sets a floor under both. The pay and conditions of operational staff may not be less favourable than an applicable award, order or industrial agreement under the IR Act, or the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993 (WA) (s 21(3)).

Award clauses the agreement replaces

Many WES335 clauses say in terms that they replace an award clause. Where they do, the WES335 clause is the one that applies.

Where WES335 is silent, the award can still apply. And where the two cover the same ground differently, WES335 prevails. For example, award overtime is double time (award cl 14(1)(a)), but WES335 pays rostered and non-rostered shiftworkers time and a half on a set formula (cl 18(1)(b)).

The promise to update the award

The parties "commit to updating the Award during the life of this Agreement, with any update to result in no change to entitlements" (cl 7(1)). So the update is a tidy-up of the award's text, not a way to change entitlements.

The expiry date does not end the agreement. Three rules in s 41 of the IR Act decide what happens next:

(a) Continuation. "Notwithstanding the expiry of the term of an industrial agreement, it continues in force in respect of all parties to the agreement, except those who retire from the agreement, until a new agreement or an award in substitution for the first-mentioned agreement has been made" (s 41(6)).

(b) Retirement. At any time after expiry, or up to 30 days before it, any party may file a notice of its intention to retire from the agreement. The party ceases to be a party 30 days after filing (s 41(7)).

(c) Replacement. When a new industrial agreement is registered, or an award or enterprise order is made, in substitution for the agreement, the old agreement is taken to be cancelled, except to the extent the new instrument saves its provisions (s 41(8)).

So, after 8 June 2025, WES335 keeps applying to DFES, the union and the employees it covers until one of those things happens.

The "no further claims" promises in cl 8 are expressed "for the duration of the Agreement" (cl 8(1)) and "for the term of this Agreement" (cl 8(2)). The text does not say whether they continue after the expiry date.

The current bargaining, the union's enterprise order application (APPL 22 of 2026, before Senior Commissioner R Cosentino: [2026] WAIRC 00756) and how they work are explained on the bargaining and current issues page.

(a) for firefighting classifications and Communications Systems Officers, the Operational Efficiency Adjustment of 1.2% from 1 January 2009 and 1.0% from 1 January 2010, which "is for all purposes and forms part of the total rate of pay" (cl 75(1)-(4));

(b) for firefighting classifications, the Advanced First Aid Allowance, an all-purpose allowance (cl 76);

(c) for Applied Training Assistants and the Safety Training Officer, annual leave loading (cl 24(4)(c)).

The increases WES335 gave

The agreement gave two increases of "$60.00 per week or 3% per annum (whichever is greater)":

(a) the first "effective on the date of registration of this Agreement" (cl 14(1)(a)), which was 6 December 2023;

(b) the second "effective on and from 9 June 2024" (cl 14(1)(b)).

Schedule 1 heads the first new column "Effective on and from 9 June 2023". Employees employed on the date of registration received back pay as if the Schedule 1 wages, penalty rates and allowances had applied from 9 June 2023 (cl 14(2)). Anyone whose employment ended before registration did not (cl 14(3)).

Pay tables (WES335 Schedule 1)

All figures are total weekly rates from WES335 Schedule 1. The 9 June 2024 column is the last registered rate.

Firefighting classifications:

Communications Systems Officers:

Building Fire Safety Officers (Built Environment Branch), from Schedule 1:

Applied Training Assistants and the Safety Training Officer, from Schedule 1:

Instructors are paid as a percentage of the District Officer base rate (cl 12(6)). Schedule 1 does not state the District Officer base rate, so we do not convert these into dollars.

All instructing positions require a minimum rank of Senior Firefighter (cl 12(6)(b)(i)).

Moving up the ranks

A trainee moves to 5th Class on attaining the trainee skills and competencies. Each later step to Senior Firefighter needs 12 months' satisfactory service and the competencies for that level (cl 12(2)(a)). Promotion to Station Officer Level 1 and above is by competencies "(or equivalent) as agreed between the parties" and, for most ranks, merit selection (cl 12(2)(b)-(g)). Station Officer Level 2 needs two years at Level 1 (cl 12(2)(c)).

The December 2025 administrative payment and penalty factor change

On 12 December 2025 the Commission made an order by consent in DFES's bargaining application, C 29/2025 ([2025] WAIRC 00984). The union agreed to lift 13 bans until 9 June 2026 (order 1) and not to take new industrial action in pursuit of bargaining before that date (order 2). In exchange, the orders say:

(a) "THAT in exchange for the above, the applicant will make an administrative payment, comprising: (a) 5% annual increase calculated from Friday, 12 December 2025. (b) the annualised wage adjustment, which increases the penalty factor from 40.074% to 46.06%, calculated from Friday, 12 December 2025." (order 5)

(b) "THAT the administrative payment in Order 5 above will offset any future wage increases that may be agreed to or arbitrated." (order 6)

(c) "THAT the administrative payment in Order 6 above will be paid as soon as practicable and no later than 26 January 2026." (order 7)

The applicant was DFES. Three points about what the order does and does not say:

(a) it is a payment agreed in exchange for lifting bans, not a variation of WES335. The Schedule 1 rates above are unchanged;

(b) it does not set out a new pay table, and it does not say what the 5% is calculated on. We have not published "plus 5%" figures for that reason;

(c) it sets a due date for payment. Whether and how it was paid is not on the public record.

The 10/14 roster for rostered shiftworkers

Rostered shiftworkers work an average of 42 hours a week over an eight-week cycle (cl 16(2)(a)):

(a) the 42 hours are 38 hours, plus two additional overtime hours, plus two accumulated hours that come back as annual leave (cl 16(2)(a)(i));

(b) the pattern is two day shifts from 0800 to 1800, two night shifts from 1800 to 0800, then four days off (cl 16(2)(a)(ii));

(c) four platoons, A, B, C and D, work it (cl 16(2)(a)(iii));

(d) the two additional hours allow 48 hours to be worked over an eight-day cycle (cl 16(5)(a)).

You may be moved between platoons. If you work more than 40 hours in the week of the change, the excess is paid at overtime rates (cl 16(2)(b)). The award has the same 42-hour, four-platoon roster, with ten-hour day shifts and fourteen-hour night shifts (award cl 8(1)).

Other working arrangements

Moving between these arrangements is by agreement. If there is no agreement, you must get at least eight days' notice (cl 16(9)).

Meal breaks

Meal breaks are "as mutually agreed", and "All Employees covered by this Agreement receive a paid meal break which is deemed part of the rostered hours of work" (cl 16(8)). See the 2015 case below.

Fatigue

For rostered shiftworkers, hours "should not exceed 92 hours in an eight day period" (cl 17(2)(b)). Exceptions, for major long-duration incidents or "when there is no alternative but to do so to maintain staffing levels", need the approval of the Deputy Commissioner Operations (cl 17(2)(c)). After two full consecutive shifts (24 hours) you get an eight-hour break without loss of pay (cl 17(2)(e)).

Only one of the on call and availability allowances is payable at a time (cl 19(5)).

Two limits protect against long runs of shifts:

(a) staffing "is to be primarily maintained by call backs of off duty Employees", but no one may enter a pattern committing them to three consecutive shifts unless the Deputy Commissioner Operations expressly approves (cl 18(2)(a));

(b) a hold-back of more than four hours may not lead into three consecutive shifts (cl 18(3)(d)).

Shift swaps (standby) are approved on SAMS, and the person standing by must be "sufficiently qualified and experienced to carry out the rostered duties" (cl 27(2)).

Three allowances are no longer paid: the training wing allowance, the country fire allowance and the telephone subsidy (cl 57(1)).

How allowances move:

(a) the allowances in cl 45 to 50 and 53 to 56 move with the Government Officers' Salaries, Allowances and Conditions Award 1989 (cl 58(1));

(b) the Other Duties and Project Advisory Team allowances move with wage increases (cl 58(2));

(c) meal allowances move with the Perth CPI food group (cl 58(3)).

So some of the dollar figures above will have moved since registration. The agreement text gives the starting figure; the current figure needs checking with DFES payroll or the union.

(a) Stage 1: the employee or employees and the immediate supervisor or line manager (cl 11(7)(a)).

(b) Stage 2: within 24 hours or the next available shift, with the supervisor or line manager and the relevant director or branch manager (cl 11(7)(b)).

(c) Stage 3: a representative of the Workforce Management Branch is involved (cl 11(7)(c)).

(d) Stage 4: referral to the relevant Director or Assistant Commissioner (cl 11(7)(d)).

(e) Stage 5: "either party may refer the matter to the WAIRC for conciliation and/or arbitration. The parties agree to abide by the decision of the WAIRC" (cl 11(7)(e)).

By agreement, the union Secretary and senior management, or their nominees, may join at any stage (cl 11(8)). Where a bona fide safety issue exists, employees will not work in an unsafe environment, but may be assigned alternative work under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA) (cl 11(6)).

Clause 11(5): work continues while the procedure runs

Clause 11(5) has two sentences:

(a) "While the dispute resolution procedure is being followed, work must continue in accordance with the existing situation or practice that existed immediately prior to the subject matter of the grievance or dispute occurring."

(b) "No party shall be prejudiced as to the final settlement by the returning to the status quo (i.e. the condition applying prior to the issue arising) or the continuance of work in accordance with this sub clause." (cl 11(5))

Two published decisions have considered it.

Appliances on restricted duties, [2025] WAIRC 00866 (WAIRC, 20 October 2025). DFES asked for orders that the union lift its ban on staffing appliances as an "Appliance on Restricted Duties" (AORD). The union relied on the Relief and Transfer Guidelines Firefighter and Station Officer Rank Employees 2016, whose Annex C sets a minimum and a preferred crew profile (AORD recital 6). The Commission accepted that the AORD dispute was "an industrial matter beyond the scope of the industrial campaign" for a replacement agreement (recital 9). Applying cl 11(5), it found that the existing practice immediately before the dispute was in DFES's Standing Administrative Procedure 5.01A, which had included an AORD option since 2011, so "the existing practice under clause 11 ... is that of an option to use an Appliance on Restricted Duties" (dispute resolution recitals 13 to 15). It ordered the ban lifted and the parties to meet. The order expressly "does not reflect a determination of the issue of whether the use of AORD is permitted under the agreed minimum staffing levels and whether the use of AORD is a safe practice".

The Built Environment Branch restructure, [2026] WAIRC 00891 (Industrial Magistrates Court, 18 September 2026). This was an interim application in a penalty claim the union filed under s 83 of the IR Act (M 122/2026). The claim itself has not been decided. At the interim stage the Industrial Magistrate expressed these preliminary views:

(a) the second sentence of cl 11(5) "does not appear to contain an enforceable obligation on any party to a dispute" ([54]);

(b) the procedure was being followed through stages 1 to 5, including after referral to the WAIRC ([60]-[61]);

(c) "Clause 11(5) of the EA does not require the 'status quo' to be maintained but requires the continuation of work in accordance with the existing practice immediately before the dispute" ([66]);

(d) "the act of restructure is not, of itself, a contravention of cl 11(5)" ([67]).

The application for interim orders was dismissed ([85]). The bargaining and current issues page tracks the matter.

Other referral rights

Separate rights to refer a matter to the WAIRC, if the parties cannot agree, apply to the District Officer Transfer and Rotation Program (cl 68(1)) and the deployment conditions (cl 70(3)). WES335 is not a referral agreement under the Employment Dispute Resolution Act 2008 (WA) (cl 11(9)).

WES335 has no general clause setting out steps for introducing change. Consultation duties appear in particular clauses:

(a) the employer may vary Communications Systems Officers' shift lengths or numbers "following consultation with the Employees" (cl 16(7)(b));

(b) a part-time employee's shifts may be varied after consultation with that employee (cl 21(5));

(c) station management initiatives are implemented "by agreement" (cl 69(1));

(d) Project Advisory Teams exist "to facilitate consultation" on operational issues (cl 52(1)).

The 2021 Canning Vale decision on the firefighters guide shows how the Commission has approached consultation over an operational change.

(b) Paid leave to give evidence before a tribunal, to attend negotiations or conferences as a union representative, to attend agreed union meetings before negotiations or hearings, and to sit on joint committees (cl 37(1)), for the minimum period needed and subject to operations not being unduly affected (cl 37(2)).

(c) Paid time off for up to four workplace union meetings a calendar year, of up to one hour each, with access to a private room on written request if one is reasonably available (cl 37(10)).

(d) Special leave without pay for an employee elected Branch President or Secretary, with re-appointment at the same classification afterwards (cl 43(5)-(7)).

(e) A copy of the WHS Representative Register to the union every six months (cl 59(3)).

WES335 has no right of entry clause. An authorised union representative may enter a workplace during working hours to hold discussions with employees under s 49H of the IR Act, on 24 hours' written notice where no instrument provides otherwise.

Clause 72 is different from the others. It is not a review DFES must carry out. It records that DFES does not object if the union applies to the Commission to amend the award for a Station Officer work value case.

Other commitments include fatigue management protocols "over the term of the Agreement" (cl 17(1)), consideration of longer rental assistance (cl 73(1)) and a review of the Fire Brigades Regulations on accident pay and medical benefits (cl 77(1)).

On the public record, the union took the reviews to the Commission in C 17/2024. On 21 May 2025 the Commission made recommendations by consent, among them: a response on how DFES defined "stable" entitlements for the modernised award (rec 1); reconvening the Rank Review Working Group on "(or Equivalent)" and career pathways (rec 3); a written DFES position on reducing maximum hours and mandated rest breaks (rec 5); whether cl 70 and cl 9 allow a deployment allowance (recs 6 and 7); a plan for the District Officer Transfer and Rotation Program Policy (rec 9); and a report-back conference "upon the expiry of the agreement" (rec 10) ([2025] WAIRC 00313). Recommendations are not binding orders.